Flower in the River: A Family Tale Finally Told

Eastland “Hero,” Vaudeville Star, Octopus Wrangler: Meet Arthur Loeb

• Natalie Zett • Season 5 • Episode 178

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A diamond-studded Carnegie medal. Dozens of dramatic rescues. A “king of the bell divers” who always seems to be first on the scene. Arthur Loeb’s Eastland Disaster legend is the kind of story that spreads fast online because it’s vivid, emotional, and easy to retell, but when we ask the most basic question, “Where’s the evidence?”, the ground shifts.

We slow down and do the work that Eastland Disaster historiography too often skips: reasonably exhaustive research. We walk through what’s actually in the newspaper record, including Loeb’s earlier arrests and the post-disaster reports that place him around the victims in ways that do not match the heroic narrative. Then we follow the myth as it grows through self-reporting, vague “medals,” and sensational claims that get picked up by bigger outlets without the context listeners deserve.

The turning point is the Carnegie Hero Fund Commission itself. We read a public denial that Loeb received any Carnegie award and unpack why that matters: the Carnegie Medal is a serious, evidence-driven honor with a high bar for documentation. Along the way, we contrast Loeb’s spotlight-hungry persona with the quieter stories of documented rescuers who rarely make it into modern retellings, and we use genealogy and census records to show the life Loeb actually lived.

If you enjoy Chicago history, true crime adjacent con artistry (!), genealogy research, or just learning how to fact-check viral historical stories, this one is a cautionary tale with receipts. Subscribe or follow, share the episode with a friend who loves “legendary” stories, and leave a review telling us your biggest red flag for a too-good-to-be-true hero claim. 

OH, and if something sounds too over-the-top to be true, it probably is! 

Resources

  • Carnegie Hero Fund Commission
  • Olive Carruthers, “How Evanstonians Assisted in the Eastland Disaster,” The Evanston Review (Evanston, Illinois), October 23, 1952, 37–38.
  • Natalie Zett, Arthur Loeb: The Fake Hero of Real Tragedies,  Flower in the River Podcast, ep. 68, June 29, 2024.
  • The Day Book (Chicago), March 26, 1913.
  • The Day Book (Chicago), August 06, 1915.
  • The Chicago Tribune (Chicago), August 6, 1915
  • Springfield News (Springfield, IL), May 30, 1916


Why Evidence Matters In History

Natalie Zett

Hello, I'm Natalie Zett, and welcome to Flower in the River. This podcast, inspired by my book of the same name, explores the 1915 Eastland disaster in Chicago and its enduring impact, particularly on my family's history. We'll explore the intertwining narratives of others impacted by this tragedy as well. And we'll dive into writing and genealogy and uncover the surprising supernatural elements that surface in family history research. Come along with me on this journey of discovery. Hey, this is Natalie, and welcome to episode 178 of Flower in the River Podcast. And I hope you're doing well. And I hope you can hang in there with me for this episode. It is truly going to be like nothing you've ever heard. Unless you heard a version of it a couple of years ago, but we'll get into that. Quite often I talk about the lack of source citations with Eastland Disaster historiography, but this time I want to step back and ask a different question. When we take on a project, a history like that of the Eastland Disaster, and want to present our work as authoritative, part of our job is to research, to do a lot of deep research, not just get a source citation or two. That's the part of the genealogical journey and historical journey as well. And it's often called reasonably exhaustive research. What happens when that type of research doesn't take place? We're going to find out. This is not just about a missing source citation here or there. It's also about the people who were part of this history and completely omitted. It's about the biographies never written. If organizations, if people who are making claims cannot provide the evidence to support those claims, what are we left with? It's something that has acquired the appearance of history, except with no proof, it's not history. So that brings me to a man who was an actual hero of the Eastland disaster, a police sergeant, a city diver with 20 years of experience, and an Evanston resident, Enoch Moberg. Enoch Moberg's story was covered by Olive Carruthers in the October 23, 1952 issue of the Evanston Review. However, his story

The Heroes We Forgot To Name

Natalie Zett

was never picked up and carried forward into present time. Until my podcast, that is. And I will give you the links to those previous podcasts where you can hear about Enoch Moberg's heroism. As with most of those people who did the rescuing, they went on to live rather quiet lives and continue doing their job. They generally did not seek the spotlight or attention. But today we are going to feature another self-described hero of the Eastland disaster who really truly enjoyed the spotlight. Let's get to know Arthur Loeb. He garnered enough publicity for himself during his lifetime that in the 21st century the publicity was picked up and passed off as part of Eastland disaster history. But let's just say this person should have been researched properly before touting him as a hero. Meet Arthur Loeb, a man I profiled once, and I swore up and down that once was enough. But it's been over two years and we do need to revisit him. A version of his undocumented Eastland heroics exists on several online platforms. On one of these platforms, there's a photo, but no provenance, no source for this photo. So maybe it's Arthur Loeb, maybe it's not. We don't know. That's problem number one. Problem number two is that there's a quote, and this is how it is presented. So there are three dots, no quotation marks, but text in italics that say, Saved 38 lives and recovered 67 bodies, and then there are three dots after that text, and then we move to a quotation. King of the Bell Divers, one of the heroes of the great Chicago Eastland disaster, who saved 38 lives and recovered 67 dead bodies. I am the only man in the world with a broken blood vessel on my forehead and a fractured skull. I also saved four lives in the Cleveland Tunnel disaster and am now on my way to France. End quote. Without a source citation or any surrounding context, this passage does not inform us so much as unsettle us. It presents extraordinary self-promotional claims as established fact while withholding everything we would need to evaluate them. We are left not with history, but with an unsupported fragment that asks for belief instead of scrutiny. Now the problem is a lot of people might come across that page, look at it, and take it at face value. Once upon a time, I probably would have as well. But the good news, there's all kinds of information online freely available about Arthur Loeb. So let's get to know him. Early on when I was initially researching the people of the Eastland disaster, I was searching in the Illinois newspaper collections located on the University of Illinois Urbana Champagne site. And this name kept popping up, Arthur Loeb. When I first saw the details about Arthur Loeb's life, I wasn't feeling inspired to research him much further. But then as time passed, I kept running into the stories of people, so many people who were actual heroes of the Eastland disaster, but whose stories were entirely omitted in the 21st century retellings. But in the meantime, Arthur Loeb was being held up as a hero of the Eastland disaster. And I thought, if nothing else, we have to try to set the record straight. That said, I hope you will stay with me until the end of this episode because the end is just as unbelievable as the beginning. So let's go.

Meet Arthur Loeb And The Problem

Natalie Zett

Arthur Loeb was born in Chicago in 1895 to Ben Loeb, an immigrant from Germany, and Jenny Dreyfus. Jenny was from Ohio. By the time Arthur was 15, he was living with his widowed mother and older brother. And in the 1910 census, we learned that at the young age of 15, Arthur already had a full-time job. He was a driver and he was working in the stockyards or for the stockyards. It doesn't give us any additional information. But Arthur Loeb had higher aspirations. By the age of 18, Arthur was already attracting the attention of newspapers. Chicago Tribune, february eighteenth, nineteen thirteen. In february nineteen thirteen, Arthur Loeb was arrested for pretending to be a Chicago Tribune reporter. He was approaching people and collecting money, supposedly intended for victims made homeless by this fire. According to the newspaper, Arthur confessed and he was identified by three of the people who he had scammed. He pleaded guilty and was paroled. Another newspaper, the Suburban Economist, on February 21, 1913, issued a blunt warning. Quote, the police have arrested a young man named Arthur Loeb, who has been collecting money, claiming that he was authorized to do so for the relief of fire sufferers. He claimed to be connected with a newspaper. He is a fraud. Look out for him. Chicago Tribune, March 3rd, 1913. Then, within days, Arthur Loeb was arrested and found guilty of stealing a diamond ring. Because he had violated his parole, he was sentenced to six months in a house of corrections and fined one dollar. From the Chicago Tribune, August 24th, 1913. So we've gone on a few months here. Now the headline is about a man, not Arthur Loeb, but another man who jumped off the top of a Masonic temple in downtown Chicago, unfortunately. And according to this article, Arthur was there. And Arthur Loeb claimed not only to witness this jump, but he said that he was almost struck by this person as this person descended to the ground, allegedly. Arthur Loeb gives a lot of quotes, and he also gives a lot of graphic detail about what he saw, and describes himself as a chauffeur living at a nearby hotel. And in 1913, Arthur Loeb, age 18, was already all over the newspapers. This was just the beginning. This article is from the Ames, that's Ames, Iowa, Evening Times. The date is january twenty first, nineteen fourteen. By then Arthur had hit the rails and he was doing some traveling. Headline is arrested on charge of petty larceny. Arthur Loeb, pseudospot, light singer, fails to quote unquote get by. Taken from train to jail, got away with money and coat in Boone, that's Boone, Iowa, and tried the same in Ames, Iowa. For the sake of time, I am going to summarize this article, but by all means take a look at the original. It does go on though for a while. So Arthur made his way to Boone, Iowa. There he checks himself into a hotel, and he pretends to be part of some singing group that was performing at a local theater, and he offered to sing at first without pay, but then he said he was stranded and needed money. Then he started quote unquote borrowing money from anyone who would give him money, including the manager of the hotel. Then he disappeared after buying another rail ticket to Minneapolis, but was intercepted. Then he was returned to Boone, Iowa, where he had to face the larceny charge. I hope you're keeping track of all of this. The newspaper presented him as a young, theatrical, confidence man, who talked freely, presented himself as a singer, and used the anticipated check, the money he was supposed to get, to persuade people to trust him. The newspaper article mocks him rather mercilessly as well. Here's a few quotes for you. They're talking about Loeb. He spent considerable time in the Times office while waiting for his cards and exhibited a colossal ignorance of the geography of the state, and impressed upon the minds of those who listened to him that he was the president of the Hot Air Shooters Union. That's the end of that quote, and it's a rather polite way of saying, Arthur Loeb, you are full of BS. And also it shows us that not everyone was taken in by him. And now we are moving to 1915. This is from the March 6, 1915 Houston Post and Houston Chronicle, the same date. Arthur Loeb now faces a highway robbery charge. He is accused of holding up an automobile party on Montgomery Road. They don't tell us where Montgomery Road is, but I'm assuming it's Houston, Texas. So it sounds as if he got a gun and stopped people on this road to rob them. He presented himself now as a middleweight pugilist boxer from Chicago. After arriving in Houston a short time ago, he registered at one of the prominent hotels and he got caught. What was the outcome? Well, this is from the Houston Chronicle, march sixteenth, nineteen fifteen. A charge of robbery by firearms against Arthur Loeb, a young white man, was dismissed by Justice Ray yesterday when the state failed to show any evidence tending to implicate the defendant in an automobile holdup on the Montgomery Road several weeks ago. So Arthur Loeb skated through that one. And he's going to keep skating for a while.

What Records Say About Eastland

Natalie Zett

Now it's time to discuss Arthur Loeb and the Eastland disaster. Remember at the beginning where he was touted as a hero of the Eastland disaster? Let's find out what really took place. And these accounts are reported by different newspapers and different publications at different times. This article is from the Chicago Examiner, July 28, 1915, four days after the Eastland disaster. Under the subheading of this article, Nets Across River, there is a paragraph. Arthur Loeb, 20 years old, who has been aiding in the recovery of bodies since Saturday, was arrested yesterday. He denied doing anything wrong. He had been arrested about a year ago, proposing as an authorized agent for a newspaper to collect contributions for the sufferers in a Southside fire. The next article is from a publication called The Day Book. The date is august sixth, nineteen fifteen. Arthur Loeb four seven four seven Prairie Avenue arrested when seen searching corpses on the Eastland Freed. This next article is from the Chicago Tribune, august eighth, nineteen fifteen. Headline Body Robbing Case Fails. Arthur Loeb dismissed on charge of having stolen valuables from the clothing of Eastland victims. Arthur Loeb, twenty years old, four seven one seven Prairie Avenue, a chauffeur, was discharged by municipal judge Hosea Wells yesterday on a charge of taking valuables from the clothing of victims of the Eastland. That's the end of that article. So Arthur got out of that one as well. He must have been one amazing talker. But do you think Arthur learns anything from these close calls? Let's find out. The next article is from the Chicago Tribune, august sixteenth, nineteen fifteen. Headline Nearly runs over man, then tries to hit him. Schaufer who was acquitted of Eastland charge, again gets into trouble. Arthur Loeb, who was arrested by the police in connection with the alleged robbing of bodies of the Eastland victims, but was exonerated, was arrested yesterday morning by Woodlawn police on a charge of disorderly conduct. He is alleged to have been one of a party of automobilists who assaulted E. O. Hansen. Hansen and two women were crossing 63rd Street and were nearly struck by the car, the police say. And when Hansen remonstrated with the men in the car, Loeb got out and attempted to strike him. Two policemen appeared and Hansen had Loeb arrested. Loeb made fruitless efforts yesterday to obtain Bond and said he expected to obtain his release later in the evening. He is a chauffeur, nineteen years old and lives at 1422 Winnemeck Avenue. Arthur either gives a lot of false addresses or he moves around a lot. Soon after that incident, Arth shuffles off to Buffalo. Yes, I had to get that in there somehow. Continuing.

Loeb’s Self-Promoted Rescue Claims

Natalie Zett

This is from the Buffalo Courier, November 5th, 1915. Diver tells of saving thirty eight lives from the steamer Eastland wreck. Arthur Loeb displays medal awarded for work in Chicago disaster. Subhead heard first cries for help, bears scars of many injuries received in rescue work. Then there's a big photo of him smiling. He says he saved 38 people, recovered 67 bodies, worked for 72 hours, suffered a fractured skull, a broken blood vessel in his forehead, and numerous cuts requiring 35 stitches. He received a medal from Chicago citizens, very vague, okay, about that. And then he was traveling home after going to Washington, DC to receive a Carnegie Hero Medal for his service. Keep that in mind because the people at the Carnegie Hero Fund Commission had something else to say about that. Much of this article is Loeb narrating his own feats. There's no visible independent corroboration. Sounds familiar? This is what we see a lot of times in the modern retellings of the Eastland disaster history. Given what we already know about his Eastland arrest and his earlier arrests and his various confidence schemes, this reads like a fully developed version of the Arthur Loeb heroic persona. It's not reliable proof that any of these events happened as he described them. Okay, so Arthur claimed to go to Washington, D.C., where he was given some kind of medal by the Carnegie Commission people. Now we'll hear what they had to say about

Carnegie Commission Calls It False

Natalie Zett

that. This article is from the Springfield News, May 30, 1916. Headline No Medal Awarded, said Manager of Commission. Head of Carnegie Board denies statement issued by man representing self as Arthur Loeb, the man who was in Springfield on May 19th and for several days following that date represented himself as Arthur Loeb, a hero of the Eastland disaster, has received no award from the Carnegie Hero Fund Commission. According to F. M. Wilmot, manager of the commission, the man presented letters to prove his statements. In his letter, Mr. Wilmot says, Through our newspaper clipping service I have received clippings in which it is stated that Arthur Loeb had received a Carnegie Medal set with diamonds and a check for $2,000 for acts performed by him at the time of the Eastland disaster. I beg to inform you that Mr. Loeb has received no award from the commission, either of a medal or money, that none of our medals, gold, silver, or bronze, are set with diamonds. Mr Wilmot asks that the quote mistaken impression given, end quote, by the article of May nineteenth be corrected. Once again, Arthur Loeb was busted, but that did not slow him down. What do you think about all of that so far? Do you think I would never be taken in by somebody like Arthur Loeb? Well, think again, because Arthur Loeb is gone off the earth plane, but his type continues, and they often attach themselves to events such as the Eastland disaster. And they are not necessarily the over the top kind of person that Arthur Loeb was, but they are very charismatic, they're convincing, and they can appear very vulnerable, but they fit that broader pattern of the repeat offender con artist who keeps performing, who keeps pushing the hype, even after exposure, even after records contradict everything that they've based their platform on. Repetition, mobility, and audience scallibility let the fraud outpace the correction. So Arthur just continues, he tours all over the place. So the bottom line is even the Carnegie people couldn't stop him. And just as an FYI, if you go to the Carnegie Hero Commission website, you can search on heroes and their records go back. They go way back. This is information from the Carnegie Hero Fund Commission

How The Carnegie Hero Medal Works

Natalie Zett

website. Number one, this is quite a serious award. It's not one of those cheerful local hero certificates. The Carnegie Hero Fund Commission was established by Andrew Carnegie in 1904 to recognize ordinary civilians who risked their lives trying to save another person. It grew directly out of the Harwick Mine disaster in Pennsylvania, where two men who entered the mine to search for survivors were killed. Carnegie was deeply affected by what had happened to the rescuers and their families. Recipients received the Carnegie Medal, considered one of the highest honors for civilian heroism in the United States of America. This medal may be awarded posthumously. Recipients or their survivors may also qualify for grants, educational assistance, death benefits, or continuing financial support. And they have a very exacting evidence standard. I'll give you the link to the website so you can take a look at the detail behind all this. But the bottom line is that Arthur Loeb is not in this website's database simply because he never received one of these awards. One additional piece of information. There's another article from the Buffalo Times, August twenty fifth, nineteen sixteen. Arthur Loeb, hero Eastland Disaster, Visiting Buffalo. Arthur Loeb, Expert Diver, the man who saved thirty eight lives and recovered sixty eight bodies in the Eastland disaster in Chicago a year ago is spending a few days in Buffalo prior to his departure to Florida, where he will join an expedition seeking a lost gold treasure off the coast. Mr. Loeb was given a Carnegie Medal for his heroic work in the disaster. Loeb was in Chicago at the time and had intended taking the excursion on the ill fated Eastland. He missed the boat, however, and was standing on the Clark Street Bridge when the passenger vessel capsized. He discarded his hat and coat, jumped into the river, and rescued the first persons, two girls from the water. Mr Loeb was in the water for over seventy two hours without arrest, saving persons and recovering bodies of the dead victims. More than a score of children were taken from the water within a few minutes after the disaster. They were all saved. Mr. Loeb was paid a high tribute by the officials of Chicago for his heroic work. Mr. Loeb has a ruptured blood vessel and a fractured skull received in some of his diving work. When an explosion occurred in the Cleveland Waterworks Tunnel a few weeks ago, Mr. Loeb was the first person to enter the death hole. He recovered thirteen bodies from the ruins. He looks none the worse for his daring feats. End of article. There was a tunnel explosion in Cleveland around July 26, 1916. There were a number of people who were killed, and in this one newspaper article from the Cleveland Plane Dealer, Arthur Loeb said he was there. So this is just self-reporting on Arthur's part. There's no corroboration for this. So every year or so it seems, when there's some kind of disaster, Arthur Loeb said he was there, and not just there, he was the first person to respond to the disaster. So he says.

Turning Tragedy Into Vaudeville

Natalie Zett

And at that point, Arthur Loeb hits the vaudeville circuit. Vaudeville was a hugely popular form of live entertainment in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. A single show might feature comedians, singers, dancers, magicians, novelty acts, and sometimes short moving pictures. Before radio, movies, and TV took over, vaudeville was one of America's favorite forms of mass entertainment. So Arthur Loeb hit the vaudeville circuit, and there are a number of advertisements in various newspapers where Arthur is either the star or a featured performer. Arthur kept moving and at certain junctures he spent a lot of time in California. This is from the January twenty fifth, nineteen sixteen San Diego Sun headline Rural Flirtation Feature of Hill. And this strange title is referring to another performance that was going on. Hodge and Lowell in a rural flirtation at the Empress this week are easily the top liners of the bill. Their act is clever, and the dance steps are unusual. The Bimbo's comedy acrobat pulls some excellent Charlie Chaplin imitations that call for a good bunch of laughs. Arthur Loeb, the quote unquote hero of the Eastland, appears in a bathing suit and bathrobe and gives a gruesome lecture on a series of horrible views of the disaster, in which more than 1,500 persons met untimely deaths. So let's pause just for a moment. Our self-described hero of the Eastland, Arthur Loeb, is not only on stage, he's performing in a bathrobe and bathing suit. And delivered what the paper called a gruesome lecture. But this really wasn't a lecture. It was theatrical staging. He dressed himself as though he had just climbed out of the river, then used images of mass death in the paper they were described as stereopticon, which is not a familiar term to us, but this was an early slide projector type of device, as part of a vaudeville bill wedged between comedy, music, dancing, and motion pictures. And Arthur Loeb says that there were 1,500 people killed on the Eastland. This is just one of the many unsubstantiated death toll numbers. But I think the bigger the number, the bigger the sensation, and as we are seeing, Arthur Loeb enjoyed sensationalism. And he turned the Eastland disaster story into costume drama. Arthur Loeb repeatedly attaches himself to emergencies, victims, and rescue work because catastrophe provides an instant stage. Do not forget that. He may not be causing the disasters, but he certainly is using them to manufacture importance, sympathy, authority, and attention. And now we are going to jump ahead to nineteen eighteen.

Newspapers Amplify The Myth Machine

Natalie Zett

This article is from the New York Times, july sixteenth, nineteen eighteen. Famous diver to find sunken ships abroad. Arthur Loeb here on way to France to help salvage vessels sent down by the enemy. Arthur Loeb, deep sea diver and hero of the Eastland disaster in Chicago in nineteen fifteen, arrived in New York yesterday on his way to French waters, where he will be used by the government to assist in the location of sunken vessels destroyed by mines or submarines. Loeb arrived recently from Honolulu, where he had been diving for the government. On his way east, he was ordered last Saturday to Peoria, Illinois, to recover the bodies of persons who were lost there in the Collingwood disaster. He recovered thirty two bodies, but sustained serious injuries in doing so. He came to New York yesterday with four stitches in one hand and nine in the other. He is also suffering from a fractured skull for which he will be operated on in France before he resumes diving. In his present condition he cannot stand the pressure beyond a depth of sixty feet. After the operation, he expects to be able to go to a depth of 120 feet. Loeb is thirty-one years old and has been diving for the government for more than ten years. In 1915, he dived from the Belle Isle Bridge at Detroit, Michigan, a distance of 135 feet, and in the following year he dived from the suspension bridge at Cincinnati, a distance of 125 feet. He is the possessor of many medals, including three for his work in the Eastland disaster. One of them is a Carnegie Hero medal studded with five diamonds. End of article. Oh New York Times, a little fact checking probably could have salvaged something from this article. But non sequiturs aside, what government are they talking about? We don't know. And notice how this crazy quilt of an article is also very vague in the details. And I'm really curious, so I will continue researching all of these claims. I used to live down the street from Belle Isle, too, and in all the years of living there, I never once saw someone dive off of the bridge. Now Arthur's gone international. The New York Times calls him a famous diver according to himself. And the facts never stopped Arthur Loeb. I do see some parallels in Arthur Loeb and then how the Eastland disaster is covered in the 21st century, the common denominator. The facts often give way to fiction. Arthur Loeb thrills crowds at Steeplechase. The outdoor pool at Steeplechase Park was the scene last Sunday afternoon of a pretty exhibition in high diving by Arthur Loeb, the hero of the Eastland disaster which happened a short while ago on the Illinois River. The Illinois River. Well anyway, after his exhibition in diving, Mr. Loeb spoke for 20 minutes on, quote, war savings stamps as the greatest life insurance policy in the country for the individual. Loeb, it is stated, saved 37 lives and recovered 67 dead bodies from the Eastland, for which he received a Carnegie Gold Medal and another medal of merit from the city of Chicago. He has just returned from Honolulu where he rescued several other lives from a steamer that went ashore there during a storm. We missed that in the earlier articles. He is now on his way to the coast of France. I could go on and on, but I'm going to shortcut this a little bit. So by 1919, though, he was back in, I guess, Honolulu. From the August 25th, 1919 Hilo Daily Tribune, Arthur was performing in the Gaiety Theater in the Palace of Pictures, engagement extraordinary, presenting Arthur Loeb in brackets himself, hero of the Eastland disaster, and now he's the king of the United States government bell divers. That's where that one comes from. Mr. Arthur Loeb will appear in person and will lecture on the Great Eastland disaster, while 1,000 feet of film will be flashed on the screen in which he himself took part and how he saved 38 lives. But this is from much later. This is

The Octopus Story And Other Stunts

Natalie Zett

from April 29th, 1929, and it's in the Long Beach Sun. Headline Hero of Eastland Disaster Now wins Plowdits in Air by Perry C Johnson From the depths to the heights. This appropriately describes the career of Arthur Loeb, traffic manager of the Mutual Aircraft Corporation Santa Monica. So now apparently he's flying planes. Okay. It says his life teems with experiences which ruts fiction to shame. They range from a Finnish fight with an octopus on the bottom of the ocean to stunting in an airplane above the clouds. First time I've heard of this one. In the course of his adventurous life, and he appears to be about forty years of age, he has garnered the finest Carnegie hero medal ever made. Enough said about that, but I want to get down to the story of the octopus. Yes, there's an octopus story here. This is from Arthur's own words. Aside from the Eastland incident, I never got into really serious difficulty diving but once, Loeb said yesterday, and that was during a fight at seventy-two feet down with an octopus. This was off the coast of Florida. The octopus had hold of me with two of its tentacles, one pinning my right arm over my shoulder, nearly wrenching it from its socket, and the other drawing my right leg up past my face. It was quite painful. However, I got hold of my knife with my free hand and began jabbing at the monster, meanwhile telephoning, up above. Wonder how far he was telephoning, to be hauled to the surface slowly, as I was in trouble with an octopus. Then he says, one of my jabs with the knife slitted the octopus's ink bag, one of his defenses, and the clear blue water around me became as black as night. The crew pulled me up, but too fast to permit of correct depression, and I was unconscious and bleeding profusely at the mouth and ears when I was hauled overside. The octopus was killed. He measured seventeen feet, tip to tip. Deep sea diving pays well, according to Loeb. I could make one hundred and fifty dollars a day in the government service and work but two hours a day, he said. But with my wrecked skull they won't let me. However, while the flying game doesn't pay quite as well, the risk is insignificant. And the work delightful. I'll spare us the rest of this, and there are all kinds of other stories about his hobnobbing and flying around various Hollywood stars and directors. Not sure about that either.

Census Records Reveal The Real Job

Natalie Zett

Okay, so you've just been subjected to Arthur Loeb, the myth. A little bit of genealogical research reveals Arthur Loeb, the real person. So, I have before me the census from 1930, 1940, and 1950. In each one of those census records, Arthur Loeb gives his profession as salesman. In 1930, he was married, living in Los Angeles, and he was a salesman of perfumes. In 1940, he says he was widowed, still a salesman, and living alone, still in Los Angeles. In 1950, he was remarried and said he was unable to work. All I can say after reading the exploits of Arthur Loeb is that no matter what he did, he must have been one hell of a salesman. That's the census records, but I have one more piece of information. This is Arthur Loeb's death certificate. Arthur Loeb died on april eighth, nineteen sixty four. He was at the Stardust Hotel and Casino, and he had a heart attack in the gift shop. The kind of business or industry he was in according to this certificate of death was Ladies' General Merchandise. In reality, that's what he was doing. Selling perfumes, ladies' general merchandise, probably for forty years, and he died of a coronary occlusion. He was married at that point to Lenore, who was also in his 1950 census record, and that's who he really was, not who he pretended to be.

The Flimflam Man After Tragedy

Natalie Zett

I opened this episode by asking, what is the job of a researcher if not to research? Had Arthur Loeb's life been fully investigated, his story could have taught us something important. Not only about the Eastland disaster, but about what can happen in the aftermath of any catastrophe. I was born in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, a city shaped by three devastating floods, 1889, 1936, and 1977. Members of my family lived through all three. I'm not kidding. One of the lessons my grandfather taught me was this Whenever tragedy strikes, look out for the Flim Flam man, as he called them. By that he meant the person who arrives when people are frightened, grieving, and vulnerable. The flimflam man gains their confidence, takes what he can from them, and leaves them in even worse condition than before. People like that have always existed, and they are not necessarily easy to recognize. They may be charismatic, intelligent, persuasive, and just very good at what they do. But Arthur Loeb himself is not the central problem here. The problem is that he was never properly researched. His remarkable and rather disturbing story was reduced to an isolated anecdote. That was an opportunity lost, but it is now an opportunity that we can reclaim. Too many modern retellings of the Eastland disaster have flattened the history. They leave out complicated people like Arthur Loeb, even though such people are part of what happens around a mass tragedy. Their presence may be uncomfortable, but excluding them or in this case, misrepresenting who they were does not make the history more respectful. It only makes it less complete. I cannot tell you what motivated Arthur Loeb. I can only examine the evidence and report the outcomes of his actions. Many of those actions were deceptive, harmful, and deeply questionable. But he was also a human being, and he appears to have been intelligent and resourceful, and he made choices about how to use those abilities. Those choices became part of the historical record and part of the Eastland story. But my responsibility with Arthur Loeb's story and with any story is to tell you what I found, tell you where I found it, and to place it in context. As always, I want the dead to speak for themselves. So perhaps Arthur Loeb's story has something to offer us, not as a hero, not as a villain, in a neatly packaged tale, but as a warning, as a message from the past. When tragedy makes people vulnerable, pay attention to the person asking for their trust. Does the person seem to care for the people who are suffering, or do they only care for themselves? Next week we will continue with more stories, but thank you for hanging in there with me as we explore the amazing and unforgettable life of Arthur Loeb. Take care of yourselves. Take care of each other. Stay safe. And I'll talk to you next week.

Closing Thanks And How To Support

Natalie Zett

Hey, that's it for this episode, and thanks for coming along for the ride. Please subscribe or follow so you can keep up with all the episodes. And for more information, please go to my website. That's www.flowerinthher.com. I hope you'll consider buying my book available as audiobook, ebook, paperback, and hardcover because I still owe people money. And that's my running joke. But the one thing I'm serious about is that this podcast and my book are dedicated to the memory of all who experienced the Eastland disaster of 1915. Goodbye for now.

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Natalie Zett

Host